Reference Articles

During his appearance on the TechEd Podcast, Pointe Precision’s Brad Cisewski discusses the many benefits he has seen in the machine shop since implementing our FullShop™ Coolant Management System, which is automating the coolant delivery process for 70 CNC machines.

Precision Tool Technologies found capacity for diversification not by adding machines, people or space, but by freeing up time. Running unattended—running so it can machine through all 168 hours in the week—has enabled this shop to use hours when staff is present to deliver work that lands outside its established specialty. To achieve unattended machining, some of the biggest challenges have related to basic details such as chips and coolant.

Using buckets, barrels and hoses to manually replenish coolant in machine tools doesn’t cut it in this tight labor market or when a parts manufacturer wants to perform lights-out machining. That was the case for Precision Tool Technologies Inc., said Jim Goerges, president of the Brainerd, Minnesota, company.

Manual coolant management can be a roadblock that prevents machine shops from running uninterrupted processes or lights-out machining. This automated coolant management system replenishes coolant to multiple CNC machine tools without human intervention.

Unattended and lights-out operations require that every manufacturing component perform reliably. That’s where LNS bar feeders, chip conveyors, Chipblaster high-pressure systems and other peripherals come in: They enable CNC machines to continuously operate at peak efficiency. However, if the machine sump runs low on coolant with no one available to top it off, production comes to a halt. Also, sumps that are off ratio waste expensive coolant.